Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Coach of the Year (perhaps) 

CBSSports.com NBA writers gave out mid-season awards, our focus is Coach of the Year.  Toronto’s Nick Nurse or Miami’s Erick Spoelstra were both identified as Coach of the Year.  I believe if you have LeBron James on your team you are supposed to win, I guess it doesn’t help if you have Anthony Davis on the roster too.  We guess the second best won-loss record in the league is not going to get you any votes for Frank Vogel as Coach of the Year either.  You have studs on the roster you are suppose to win, that's okay winning beats awards anyway.   

Rick Adelman

He was the most successful coach in the team’s Sacramento history.  Do you realize since he left in 2006 Luke Walton is now coach number 10?  This number of coaches was either fired by the front office or resigned.  Of the number only Mike Malone is coaching today however his firing might be called into question based on his success with the Nuggets.  What happened in Sacramento since Adelman left the question is anyone’s guess, the team is now under a second ownership group and still fails to grasp what it takes to turn out a winning team.  Every season we can count on two things, April 15 tax time and later the Kings drafting a lottery prospect.  Someway, somehow the good ones leave through trade or free agency. 

The 2020 version of the Kings on paper appears highly talented, is Walton the coach to get them over the hump?  This franchise of Mike Bibby, Chris Webber and Hedo Turkoglu once gave the Shaq/Kobe teams all they could handle.  In fact, many claim this team should have beaten the Lakers in 2002.  Some have claimed the Kings were cheated out of a championship because the NBA "wanted" the Lakers.  The franchise has now missed the playoffs since 2006 the longest postseason drought in basketball.  The Kings are 10 games below .500 as this is written, that’s a hint they will watch the playoffs like us.  "Man, this theatre seat in your Man Cave is mighty comfortable" will be the statement by one Kings player to his teammate.  

Divided loyalty 

The two largest metro areas of the nation New York City and Los Angeles are unique.  Each has multiple sports teams which create divided loyalties.  I was viewing a Laker podcast and one of the co-hosts was being comically humiliated.  He explained, “I had family in town, and they wanted to see a game, the Lakers were not playing so I took them to a Clippers game.  I was rooting for the Warriors to beat them.” 

Would a Knicks fan root for the Nets, it’s highly unlikely?  We could make the same statement regarding the NFL Chargers and Rams.  The baseball Yankees or Mets, Chicago is mentioned here because the city is divided due to its two baseball teams.  Cubs fans don’t follow the White Sox or vice-versa.  Hopefully the adversarial relationship is not personal between Laker and Clipper fans, however this theme might be common not only in Los Angeles but New York and Chicago.  Theses cities have divided loyalty among its sports fans.   

Flavor of the week

The noise about making Baylor number one because they knocked off Kansas.  It was just that, a whole lotta talk.  The Bears moved up to number 2 in the AP and Coaches Poll which is where they should be in my view.  Kansas dropped to 6 in the AP and 7 in the Coaches Poll, why am I making a big deal about this?  It’s a popularity contest, I didn’t heed my own words.  It becomes a popularity contest until the first Monday in April, at that time the the NCAA champion is crowned.